The General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Ricardo Gutiérrez, was invited today to speak about the situation of journalists at the Council of Europe Ministerial Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Freedom of Expression and Media Freedom. The EFJ again called on Council of Europe member states to fulfil their international commitments to protect journalists. “All over Europe, media freedom is declining,” said Gutiérrez.” All over Europe, the working conditions of journalists are deteriorating. (…) The situation is getting worse, year after year. In the last six years, 33 journalists have been killed in Europe while doing their job.…

The hijacking of a plane and kidnapping of editor and blogger Raman Pratasevich is viewed by the free expression, press freedom and journalists’ community as the outrageous climax of a broader campaign against media freedom in Belarus that drastically intensified after the August 2020 election. Joint call to make respect for press freedom a cornerstone of all demands towards Belarus The undersigned organisations are calling for the international community to make respect for press freedom a cornerstone of all demands it voices towards Lukashenka’s regime. The hijacking is yet another step in a massive attack on press freedom and should…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined its partners in the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) in expressing dismay at Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša’s disparaging tweet about Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović. On 6 June 2021, Prime Minister Janša said the Commissioner is “part of #fakenews network” in response to her recent memorandum on freedom of expression and media freedom in Slovenia. The Prime Minister’s tweet quoted Mitja Iršič, a public relations expert at the Ministry of Culture, who said their considerations were not properly represented and called the Commissioner’s report “biased and ill-informed.” We welcome…

In the Netherlands, more than eight in ten journalists have experienced some form of aggression of threat, according to a new study carried out by I&O research for PersVeilig and published on 5 June 2021. Almost 700 journalists in the Netherlands responded to the new survey “Aggression and threats towards journalists 2021” which assessed the level of safety of journalists in the country. The results paints a bleak picture with more than 8 journalists out of 10 reporting having experienced violence or threats at some point in the course of their work. Four years ago, the figure was already high,…

In a Memorandum published today, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, calls on the Slovenian authorities to put a stop to the marked deterioration of freedom of expression and of the media in the country. The Commissioner warns that some steps taken by the Slovenian government in recent months risk undermining the ability of independent voices to speak freely. She stresses that hostile public discourse, as well as smear campaigns and intimidation targeting civil society activists and those who express critical opinions, harm free expression and can have a chilling effect on media freedom. The Commissioner…

Two Azerbaijani journalists and an official were killed today by a landmine explosion in the Kalbajar region, west of Nagorno-Karabakh. Four others were injured in the incident, which saw a truck blown up by an anti-tank mine at about 11am local time, Azerbaijan’s interior ministry and the office of the prosecutor general said in a statement. The three victims were identified as Maharram Ibrahimov, a reporter working for state news agency AzerTag, Siraj Abishov, a cameraman for Azerbaijan state television AzTV, and local official Arif Aliyev. The explosion occurred when a bus carrying journalists who were on duty in the Kalbajar region…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and its affiliate in Belarus, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), welcome today’s statement by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro urging “the public authorities in Belarus to free all journalists and other media workers who have been sentenced, arrested or detained in the country. Most of these journalists were apprehended for their reporting on public events and other political developments in the country.” “This systematic clampdown on journalists and media workers is a gross violation of the OSCE commitments related to freedom of expression and media freedom, voluntary undertaken…

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) condemns the threats and insults by Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik against journalist Tanja Topic. Currently a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik called the journalist a German agent and ‘quisling’. It is the latest in his campaign of threats and insults against journalists who is he disagrees with. ETUC defends democracy and the rights of independent journalists and a free media, and says that threats and insults against journalists, and anyone else, should have no place in the rhetoric of elected politicians. “This is a new low for Dodik and…

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) is deeply concerned by the lawsuit targeted at a journalist and the editor-in-chief of the Network for Investigation of Crime and Corruption (KRIK) by the director of Serbia’s Security-Information Agency (BIA). The MFRR urges the BIA director Bratislav Gasic to immediately withdraw the civil lawsuit against KRIK and to refrain from weaponising the law to intimidate media outlets investigating the nexus between crime, corruption and politics in Serbia. The SLAPP lawsuit stems from anarticle KRIK published on April 9 which reported details of wiretapped conversations played as evidence in the murder trial of criminal…

Journalists and media in Croatia are targeted by new legal threats, warned the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) and Union (SNH) with five lawsuits filed against Telegram.hr portal. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) strongly condemns the widespread practices in the country, also known as SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), whose objectives are to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with court proceedings. Last month, judge Zvonko Vrban, president of Osijek County Court, filed five lawsuits against the Telegram.hr portal for five articles written by journalist Drago Hedl about irregularities in the judge’s work. Vrban announced that damages…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its affiliate in Croatia, the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND), in condemning the latest verbal attacks and accusations by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković towards media and journalists after the local elections on 30 May. Shortly after the second round of local elections in Croatia last Sunday, the Prime Minister once again attacked the media, accusing them of “being paid to vilify a political camp” and of deliberately and repeatedly misnaming the HDZ’s candidate for Zagreb mayor, Davor Filipović, in debates in the first election round. Plenković also accused the media of being “mercenaries who disgust one’s…

The journalistic profession is rapidly changing as a result of the emergence of new technologies. Journalists are expected to acquire new skills and do multi-tasking. They have to be an all-in-one journalist, photographer and camera operator. At the same time, they are caught up in the 24-hours news cycle and lack the time to take part in training in order to learn new skills. Instead, most of them are learning these new skills while performing their jobs. Media companies are less and less interested in offering training for their journalists due to budget cuts. How can we solve this dilemma…

The journalist and political analyst Tanja Topić was wildly attacked and threatened by Milorad Dodik, the Chairman of the BiH state Presidency, on 24 May. He denounced her as “an agent of the German BND” and a “quisling”. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joins its affiliate, the BH Journalists’ Association (BHJA), in condemning yet another violation to press freedom by one of the highest political officials in the country. This is not the first time Milorad Dodik is targeting journalists as “traitors”, “mercenaries” and “hostile media” or that he insulted or humiliated journalists whose reporting he disagrees with. This latest…

On 21 May, the third session of the EFJ series of webinars on improving media reporting on Muslims and Islam took place online with contributions from the journalistsJean-Paul Marthoz (Le Soir, Belgium), Shirish Kulkarni (Clwstwr, UK) and Neila Butt, Creative Diversity Lead for programs at Channel 4 in the UK. The webinar focussed on how journalists can push for more ethical reporting practices inside their newsrooms and how diverse newsrooms currently are. To watch the recording of the webinar click here. Jean-Paul Marthoz started the discussion by highlighting that there are many ways to cover Islam but we must stick…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) join the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) to call for the immediate release of all political prisoners held in Belarus, including 29 journalists and media actors. This statement was originally published on baj.by on 24 May 2021. On May 23, blogger Raman Pratasevich was detained by Belarusian security forces at the Minsk National Airport, following the forced landing of a Ryanair passenger airliner. According to available information, Pratasevich is facing charges under Part 1 of Art. 293 of the Criminal Code (organization of mass riots), Part 1 of Art. 342 of…

On Sunday 23 May, the Belarusian authorities forced a civilian plane to perform an emergency landing in Minsk. The Ryanair plane, flying between Greece and Lithuania and carrying more than 100 passengers, was forced to land by a Belarusian military aircraft. One of the flight passengers, Belarusian journalist Raman Pratasevich, was retained by the Belarusian authorities and prevented from boarding the plane at the Minsk airport to its original destination. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) denounces this act of air piracy and state terrorism. It demands the immediate release of Raman Pratasevich and the 28 other journalists currently detained…